


a little bit softer now

by rainbowrabblerouser



Series: written because I'm lonely, melancholic, gay, yearning, aching, and pining and– [9]
Category: Animal House (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Delta House said Gay Rights, Friends to Lovers, Gay Bar, Getting Together, Humor, I really made fanfic about a college frat dudebro movie from 1978, M/M, Pining, Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowrabblerouser/pseuds/rainbowrabblerouser
Summary: Otter tries to cope with how lovesick he is over Boon. Hoover takes him and the boys to a gay club and Otter runs into someone he'd rather not see at the moment...-[Boon and Otter were best friends, but most importantly, they were roommates. (Oh my God, they were roommates..)Here's the gay Animal House (1978) fanfiction you're looking for!]
Relationships: Eric "Otter" Stratton/Donald "Boon" Schoenstein, Robert Hoover & Eric "Otter" Stratton
Series: written because I'm lonely, melancholic, gay, yearning, aching, and pining and– [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712041
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	a little bit softer now

**Author's Note:**

> title is from "Shout" - the song they all danced to
> 
> also I put in a reference to Taylor Swift's "Treacherous"

Boon is such a fucking flirt, but then again, so is Otter.

It’s senior year and it seems that they have not changed at all since freshman year. Only thing is that Otter starts feeling a twinge of jealousy in his chest somehow. It used to never be like that. He used to welcome Katy’s presence as if she were just one of the pledges and that she belonged in the Delta house. But now, as he watches Boon as he goes out to her, he feels that shudder he gets when he thinks of how he wishes that Boon would just stay with him for once. In their room. Their place. Their house.

Hoover tells him that he’s being foolish. Falling for another Delta guy. Then, again, what did Hoover know? He was basically their dad. What could he contribute to his dilemma? So when the pledges wonder why Otter was slowly losing his edge and his cool as their grades dropped and Boon went out with Katy more often than he used to, Hoover just backs him up, telling the guys to read a damn book and a room for once. 

Boon had flirted with Otter the most. That was their thing. 

Sometimes, he’d be a little too chummy with Pinto, but he was just doing that as part of the hazing. Also, Otter couldn’t blame him. Pinto did kind of remind himself of a young Otter. Guess that’s why he had been so handsy with him at the Food King. Then again, Otter did try to screw the dean’s wife so he supposed he’d call it square instead of making it a whole thing like he usually did.

If Hoover is the dad (sometimes acting like a teen mom) of Delta House, then Otter guessed that he and Boon were the ambiguously gay uncles of the family. The pledges just needed some guidance. They were awful role models, but at least they weren’t like Grandpa Bluto or Divorced Family Friend D-Day. 

Besides, most people took one look at Delta House and could get a gist of their dynamics: Hoover frets over them being stupid, but enables, everyone assumed Boon and Otter were fucking but chill about it, Bluto was the wildcard, and D-Day was...D-Day. Plain and simple. 

Otter knew that he’d get whiplash when he’d have to leave them behind. He would actually miss college. In college, he was the cool guy. Unlike high school, he belonged. When he finally hit puberty (albeit a tad bit late), he knew that he’d finally get what he wanted with women, but then a starry-eyed, cute little freshman, Donald "Boon" Schoenstein, ruined that for him. 

As soon as he started going by Otter, almost as if Delta House had murdered Eric and sent him to hell, he knew that he’d never ever go back. Not when being Otter was so much better than any time being Eric ever was. Otter had his Boon and the support of an entire brotherhood. Eric just had slurs spat in his face by his own father and his classmates for 18 whole years. They would have never been friends anyway; Eric and Otter are two different people. But he’d learn that when he realized what that meant for his connection with Donald and Boon.

Donald never comes out unless Katy is around. Then, as soon as she was out of sight, Boon would chug his liquor and put his arms around Otter, touching him everywhere so casually as if they were made for each other. Alas, Otter knows it’s too good to be true. 

He couldn’t go on like this for much longer. All of this...fucking yearning was eating him alive. Count on the universe to give Otter the raging crush he had on his best friend. What a cliché. To make it worse, everyone else knew. And none of them even cared! It’s not that he was wishing that the guys were homophobic or anything, but he just wished Hoover would say something to get him to stop being such a damn coward.

Even Bluto had called him out, starting with the name Otter, an obvious reference to how gay Eric had presented himself when he first approached the Delta House. That was when Bluto had been in his junior year– when the man still had some semblance of a moral compass and a fucking hygenic routine. But Otter hated to say it: Bluto was right. He knew before anyone else. Hell, the man could be the president and Otter would not be surprised. Bluto was the glue that held them together. Hoover was the bridge that held them up. Otter and Boon had met each other in the middle and supposed they’d live happily ever after.

If only.

So as Otter looks on at Boon going away, he just thought of getting drunk with the boys and saying something about how stupid and childish he felt. He had nothing to lose at this point. Everyone already said that they thought they were screwing since they had still chosen to sleep in the same room when they easily could have had their own separate ones. But Hoover had been given a knowing look when he had offered to separate them and that was the end of it.

“Hey guys, I wanna say something,” Otter sags onto the couch in the living room, well, what was left of it since the kegger that they had held a few days ago became into a fucking whirlwind and the debris was still lying around since it was Bluto’s turn to clean up and he had been busy “studying Women’s History” at the sorority houses.

Hoover was on the recliner with his feet up, reading the newspaper like the sitcom father he was. His sweater was soft and he looked up in such a fatherly fashion that Otter could have sworn that his life was a damn television afternoon special.

“What’s wrong? You look upset, Otter. I saw Boon leave. Did something happen? We’re here. Eric,” Hoover said in the softest voice ever. God, he was such a mother.

“You don’t have to bust out the E-word, Robert,” Otter teased. “I just...feel dumb.”

Bluto, Flounder, Pinto, and D-Day were all sitting around the television watching Saturday Night Live as it ended, then Bluto slammed the remote to shut it off as the credits rolled. Playtime is over. Time for whatever the hell this was supposed to be. Sharing time in the psych ward? Group therapy? Circle time for the GSA?

Whatever it was, the guys were all ready to listen as they scooted closer, all looking like a bunch of kindergarteners listening to the teacher read “The Rainbow Fish” for the first time. Given Otter’s situation, it didn’t stray too far from the truth. He was the Rainbow Fish, but he felt like now he was ripping his scales off one by one, shedding them even if he bleeds out in front of the other Delta fish in the ocean. Flooding the water with his blood, staining the very Delta reputation. 

Pinto up a hand up like a child, asking permission to speak. He was adorable.

“Yeah, we’re here for you. You seem...down in the dumps, Otter.”

Flounder nodded and added, “We don’t think we’ve heard you laugh in days. Also, you haven’t flirted with a co-ed in a week and a half. The boys start putting a bet–”

He was cut off since Pinto elbowed him.

Otter was that obvious? He thought that he had mastered masking his emotions. Living with his parents had honed that skill. Or maybe the guys really cared enough to be able to see right through him as if he were the glass on the window of the Delta House.

Bluto, blunt as ever, sips from his Jack Daniels, belches, then smashes it against the wall. “You’re jealous of your roommate’s girlfriend, aren’t ya?”

All of them looked at Bluto, then stared back at Otter expectantly. Come on. Even Bluto called him out. Hoover had long since tossed his newspaper aside and put his glasses away. He was leaning forward, awaiting an answer like a mother wondering why her son had pulled the pigtails of the girl he liked during recess. 

Otter could feel his face heating up. He shouldn’t be embarrassed. There had been gay Deltas. He wouldn’t be doing anything to their already notorious reputation. What could he lose? Then, he realizes it. 

He could lose his Boon. His best friend. His roommate. Whatever miniscule space he occupied in Boon’s heart that had been dominated by Katy because he wasn’t good enough for him. Because Otter knows that he could never give him what he needed. Only what he wants. A fleeting desire for pleasure and release. A conclusion to an experiment. 

Before he knows it, he feels sick to his stomach and a little pang of pain in his heart. Was he dying? Bleeding out in front of the pledges? They could never see him so vulnerable. What example was he setting?

Then, he feels like he can’t breathe. 

Hoover has a hand on his shoulder, already moving next to him. “Eric? You look pale.”

Maybe it was the grades. Maybe it was getting secret double probation. Maybe it was the pressure on him to succeed. Maybe it had nothing to do with Boon.

But deep down, a voice is yelling at him that it had everything to do with him.

“Sorry. I was….just thinking. I need a drink,” Otter reaches out for whatever Bluto could hand him and he sips from the bottle, hoping the alcohol could fill the emptiness he felt in his chest. But it goes right through him and he contemplates locking himself in the bathroom to fake a stomach virus so he could be alone.

He can’t. He needed to face this headon. This wasn’t something he could run away from. One of these days he was going to completely get his heart broken as he watched Boon– no, Donald’s eyes flood with tears of joy as he gaped at Katy walking down the aisle. And maybe Otter would run away or speak when the preacher asks for any objections. Maybe he’d throw himself out of Donald’s life to save him the tears.

Save both of them the tears.

Then, Hoover’s hands on the bottle tear him away from the thoughts and he’s back in Delta House, at his home with the boys. Back to reality. Where he could do anything and anything could happen in the future and he’s fucking terrified of losing his best friend, the only person he had ever been in love with ever. And it’s so unbearable to handle without alcohol, but he lets Hoover sober him up and hand him a glass of water.

D-Day speaks up from his spot in the corner. “He’s in pain. He’s fucking hurting inside. I understand that. I’ve been there.”

And the guys all look back at him as he sips from his glass solemnly. Like he was drinking for a dead man. And that dead man was Otter. Not Eric. 

Hoover has an eyebrow raised, curious. “Whaddya mean, D?”

“I mean that I had a best friend once. And I lost him. And I never said anything. Because he had been happy with someone. But she was just a lie. An excuse,” D-Day melts into Daniel for a split second as he meets Otter’s gaze as if he’s searching for Eric to talk to instead. “Don’t be afraid. Be a man and say you want him. Do it for all of us who were too scared to do it. Most importantly. Do it for yourself.”

All of us.

Otter guessed it made sense since D-Day never had a girl over and he always seemed to fade away as soon as the girls showed up and started talking to the guys. D-Day had never spoken up about anything like this before, usually into his mechanics. But Otter could feel Eric trying to hear him through the darkness. And he knew that Eric needed a Daniel to be a guide. Otter knew that though Daniel had never been close to him, he’d still love him like the brother he was. 

Pinto and Flounder look like they just got it and were about to cry. Freshmen. Always so emotional. They’re lucky they were spared the three years of him pining and aching for Boon to just notice him in a different light. Just give in to temptation and just take a chance on Otter. Just dip himself into the pool of curiosity and allow himself to drown in the love that Otter felt. But instead, he went to the desert to search for Katy at the oasis when she really was in the pyramids the whole time.

So Otter feels himself become a raging storm, with waves crashing into the shore as if he was trying to extend himself onto the land so he could have a single droplet reach Boon as he flew through the wind to find Katy. But Otter can’t. He’d evaporate under the heat of the passion. Something that would dry him up in a millisecond. Because he's too flexible with Boon. Always bending himself into whatever shape was needed for him whenever he pleased. Unlike Katy, who was so solid and set in her ways as she tried to detach Boon from her Donald and both of them would be stolen from Delta House like how they had stolen Omega’s beer routinely. Otter resigns that he’d forever dehydrate Boon because he was too foolish to think of how he’d survive under the sun and face the scorching desert that was his attempts to make it work with Katy.

“Uh,” Pinto coughs. “I think we broke Otter.”

Bluto splashed him with Jack Daniels and yelled, “No otters are going extinct tonight! Flounder, make it rain.”

But before Flounder can hit him in the splash zone, Hoover is shutting down the show.

D-Day scoots forward and says, “Otter. Do you have something you would like to share with the class?” in an attempt to distract him with humor he rarely used.

“As if you’d ever show up to lectures, D-Day,” Otter spits out with a small smirk.

The boys sigh in relief. He’s still there. Not lost. Otter was drifting in a pool of his own tears as he slowly thawed into whatever husk of a person Eric was.

But then, the cold water of reality freezes him again.

  
Otter is not breaking today. No more endangerment of his feelings.

Screw his pride.

“I love him. And he doesn’t need that.”

There’s a moment of silence. Deltas never said that they loved people. At least not in this way. Most of them had flings and short-lived relationships with girls as the revolving door came and went, spinning to and fro. They’d talk about love in the context of partying, spending time with the boys, and fucking things up.

But Otter didn’t regret it. He’s in love. Hopelessly. Desperately. Earnestly.

“Are you sure?” Hoover breaks the silence, his voice nearly cracking as if his heart was broken at the thought and sight of witnessing Otter’s slowly chipping away. “Do you mean that you love him, but really he doesn’t deserve it?”

Of course, Hoover felt that he needed to ask. Always wanting to protect Otter from Eric and save him before he broke down in front of them. Robert was making his cameo, but Otter needed to talk to Hoover right now because he wasn’t sure how different Robert really was as opposed to the Hoover who had been the Delta Dad for years.

Maybe Hoover had known all along that Otter had been sex-crazed as a form of compensation for the truth. That he never really got past five minutes with the women unless they were doing anal and he thought of Boon instead. Because Hoover probably knew him better than he knew himself. With a maternal and paternal instinct to guide him since Hoover never had a partner with him. Maybe Hoover was like him, but he chose to be alone, reserve himself for after college– when he had it all figured out and he didn’t have to be the dad of the Deltas anymore.

Perhaps Hoover was ashamed and didn’t want to show a possible weakness to the guys. Or maybe he was so accepting of himself that he didn’t feel the need to expose himself and come out to them.

He’d learn later on that Hoover had some small thing with the Omega president, but it was short-lived like the other guys’ “relationships” with women.

“I don’t know what to say to that,” is all Otter can muster as he feels a tear escape and reveal itself. And he lets his eyes flood and the release overtake him as he shatters in front of them without shame. If they really loved him as a brother, they wouldn’t give him shit for this. He was a human like them. 

Otter closes his eyes and when he opens them, he can’t see the wall. Because the guys were all embracing him in a group hug. They rarely did this unless there was a victory for Delta. But it felt nice to know that he had friends– no, brothers.

Hoover has a hand on his shoulder, a soft touch compared to the hits he’d get from his father on the same spot. Otter lets himself drift off to sleep, exhausted from his own melancholy. 

The next day, he wakes up in his bed and sees a note on the bedside table:

  
  


**_The guys wanted you to take a break from it all, so when you wake up, get dressed. We’re going out somewhere later. Also, here’s some medicine for the headache you probably have from everything. Take care and don’t hesitate to reach out._ **

**_We’re here for you, Otter._ **

**_No one’s getting ignored._ **

**_–Hoover_ **

  
  


The other guys had signed too and in Bluto’s scrawl next to Hoover’s signature was “Delta Dad” in parentheticals. 

Otter sits up to see that Boon is nowhere to be found. His sheets had been untouched so it meant that he had stayed the night with Katy. He feels sick again and lays back down. He really did spend Friday night crying with his frat brothers while Boon was living it up with his future wife. And now it was Saturday afternoon and he could still feel the acid in his stomach melting away at his insides. 

At least the guys were with him. They were his brothers and they would be forever.

When he finally gets up and heads downstairs, he runs right into Katy.

“Sorry, Katy. I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s okay. Just needed to pick up a book I left here. Boon’s out. I...I just...just don’t mention that I was here. Please,” Katy looks up at him with pleading eyes and he feels almost worried for her. What was wrong now?

Katy was his friend still and he wouldn’t be able to handle if something bad had happened to her. She looked tired and worn out. Maybe she had been smoking and drinking late last night and she and Boon had a fight. Or maybe she had been hurt by someone else. 

“Are you all right, Katy? You seem...out of it.”

“Oh, I just feel...dumb….” her voice trails off like an echo and his mind is back to last night when he had said the same thing. Maybe Boon had broken her heart too.

They part ways and Otter searches for the other guys.

When he heads out of the house, he sees them driving donuts with the car that Flounder had scored them that week, but still there is no Boon anywhere.

D-Day was working on the car’s engine as soon as the car stopped and the guys spilled out and fell onto the ground in piles of dizzy boys. Man, they really were a step away from being literal manchildren. This was what Katy had often complained about to him and Boon (mostly Boon). And he couldn’t blame her sometimes. 

“You’re awake. Can you pass me that five-eighths wrench?” D-Day says, not looking up from the engine. He extends a hand out and waits as Otter searches. “They’re labeled, Otter.”

“I think you might need a three-fourths instead,” Otter mutters, handing him a different one. D-Day grunts and sputters, shocked that Otter knows a thing or two after years of watching him work on engines. “Yup, you’re welcome...Also, thank you for what you said to me last night….I need that, brother.”

D-Day smirks and pats his back as he walks over to Hoover.

He’s sitting in a lawn chair as he supervises the nonsense unfolding as Bluto slides out of the driver’s seat and lies next to Pinto and Flounder heaving. This time, Hoover’s got his prescription sunglasses on as he annotates what appears to be a book with the title: “The Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde” and the purple ink of his pen stains the pages as he jots down his thoughts about the text. 

“Good morning, sunshine,” Hoover says like a father who was greeting a very lazy teenager. It wasn’t far off since they were all outside as an excuse to not do homework. Hoover was definitely not doing that for a class since he had already done his credits for English, He was doing it for fun?

“I think I get it now. Well, I got it before, but I understand you now,” Hoover says as he props his sunglasses up. He holds up the book and reads out:

**_“Alas! it is a fearful thing_ **

**_To feel another's guilt!_ **

**_For, right within, the sword of Sin_ **

**_Pierced to its poisoned hilt,_ **

**_And as molten lead were the tears we shed_ **

**_For the blood we had not spilt._ **

**_–_ ** _The Ballad of Reading Gaol”_

“Man, is that fucked up or what? The whole gay yearning thing always illuded me since I never really was in love with any of the guys I liked, but I can see what you mean,” Hoover whistles as if he just saw something shocking. 

Otter feels like a kid talking to his father who he had just caught reading his comic books and had been schooled about how Bruce Wayne was actually bisexual (something that Otter had known). But Hoover just resigns to closing his book and calling the other boys to him.

“Deltas, one of our own is in distress. So we as brothers must come to his aid. Tonight, we are going to a club to cheer up our boy.”

When they arrive, Hoover chuckles as Flounder and Pinto sputter as they realize that they were not going to be getting laid tonight. The rainbow light reflected on their young faces and Hoover remembered the first time he was taken to a gay club by the Delta president during freshman year. That guy was a Congressman now. Fighting for their rights still. And he’d never be able to thank him enough for bringing him somewhere he could breathe. 

“Sorry, boys, this one’s for Otter. And D-Day. And also me, I guess. It was three against two. Besides, I thought you guys had girls already. Unless someone’s bearding?” Hoover gives them a sly look as the boys shake their heads and D-Day chuckles.

Hoover looks at Otter, who had been sitting in the passenger seat and sulking with his head against the window the whole ride there. The sun had set and he had not taken his eyes away from the horizon. Even when Hoover played that Buddy Holly song that he liked and the other guys giggled as they joked that the instrumental sounds like he’s jacking off into mic and singing about how he masturbates every day.

Maybe that’s the real meaning of boys will be boys: fixation on penises. 

Oh well. He hoped that he’d get some well-deserved fixations tonight if he was able to find Otter someone and he could leave him alone for a bit and find someone too. What were brothers for? Despite being the same age, Hoover felt that he had been like such a dad to him that he needed to relearn how to not act so old all the time.

Fucking some hot guy would do just the trick.

So when they enter and separate, Pinto and Flounder decide to order drinks and seclude themselves by sitting together at a table for two and holding hands in a feeble attempt to not get hit on if they present themselves as a couple. They get approached by a guy immediately despite this.

Hoover pushes Otter along as D-Day disappears after they leave the bar with their glow-in-the-dark drinks. This would be a long night if Otter wasn’t going to talk. They sit down and drink and wait for something to change, but they’re unbothered.

“Eric, you need to tell me if you want to leave. We can go if you want. There’s a diner across the street. I just wanted to try to make you happy. And–”

“No, I’m good. I just need to drink some more.”

Otter holds his glass up and then heads back to the bar, avoiding the dance floor, relieved that the dim lighting and colorful lights hide his frown.

As he asks the bartender for something hard and he shoots him a death glare when he hears him giggle at the accidental innuendo, Otter props his elbow against the counter and holds his head up, trying not to hang his head in melancholy.

Then, Otter hears a familiar laugh. And sees a familiar head of hair. He looks the guy up and down and definitely recognizes that frame. Wait...

“Boon. Is that you? Why are you–”

He remembers how distraught Katy was this morning. Was he cheating?

“Katy cheated on me.”

That was a surprise for Otter. 

Boon looked as sad as he did. He knew how much Katy meant to him. Maybe– wait, no. It was so wrong to just preposition him immediately after he found out that he had been cheated on. Otter knew better than to let his sexual urges dominate a situation so that he could dominate B– no.

All right. So he just saw his best friend in a gay bar after he was taken to one to get over him. Well, an attempt to get over him. What to do now….

“Why are you here? I thought you weren’t–”

“I’m not,” Boon says and Otter’s false hope wilts. “I like guys and girls. I just never said anything because of how people are. I don’t wanna get called a f-f–”

He stops talking and looks down so he doesn’t have to look him in the eye. 

“Oh.”

“What?”

“I just. Don’t believe this,” Otter looked down too. He didn’t know what to say.

Boon moves closer to him and Otter doesn’t want to look up, but he does.

“Why are you here?”

Oh. Fuck. 

“Uh, Hoover took me and the boys here. Because I–” Otter doesn’t want to say it was because of him. Because of how he felt about him. Since he was upset over him.

“You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to. I just came here because I know she would never search for me here. She doesn’t know,” Boon spares him.

“No,” Otter says as he straightens up his posture. “I owe you an explanation.”

Otter can feel his eyes on him as he waits for him. Part of him wishes that he’d wait forever for him. Maybe. But it’s a lonely but hopeful thought. And he lets it go.

A moment passes as they stare.

The lights of the club dance all over them, painting their faces in reds and blues and pinks and purples and greens. Like a perfect storm.

“I...I can’t do this here. Do you wanna go back?” Otter says finally.

Boon leans in and grips his shoulder as they navigate their way to the exit. 

When they pass Hoover, he nods at them and continues talking to some guy. They pass by the pledges and get confused when they’re making out in the corner booth, but they don’t say anything. 

“Well, what did you want to tell me?”

Otter freezes up. He had spent the entire ride listening to the Buddy Holly Boon play on the radio and thinking about what he’d say to him.

Now it was time and he wasn’t sure if what he was going to say was good enough.

When he doesn’t say anything for a few moments, Otter takes his hand and leads them to sit down on his bed. Then, he grips his shoulders with both hands. 

“Eric…” 

And suddenly, Otter is gone. He’s Eric. Eric was with Donald now. 

“I was there because Hoover wanted me to be happy. He thought that maybe if I was there and tried to get over you, then I’d be all right. Like I could get over you like you were some girl. But I can’t. Because I never loved any of those girls…”

He sees him catch his breath.

But he doesn’t say anything back.

Otter just looks back into those expecting eyes and he wished he wasn’t so unsure.

“I never loved any of them because….” Otter felt his heart slowly shattering into shards that tore through his bloodstream and poisoned him instantly. “...I couldn’t.”

“Why?” And Otter feels Boon moving closer and closer.

Until their lips are so close, but not touching. 

It’s a treacherous thought, but Otter can hear a voice in the back of his mind, probably Eric, yelling for him to take a risk and close the gap, hoping he wouldn’t be pushed away. He can feel his breath against his lips.

“I love someone else,” he whispers softly. “But he doesn’t love me back.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Boon closes his eyes and he makes the move, gripping the collar on his shirt and pulling him in, kissing him desperately, like he had been hungering for it for a long time. Otter sighs into it and kisses back with more intensity than he thought he’d have.

He slips his fingers along the back of Boon’s neck to deepen the kiss and they end up making out for a while. On Otter’s bed. Much more wanting and hotter than Otter had ever imagined. He used to want it soft, tender, slow. But Boon had been so quick and had already slipped his tongue into his mouth, complicating everything. 

Soon, Otter was pushing Boon down onto the mattress, pulling away for just a second, then kissing his neck. Slow kisses along his neckline up until his jawline.

“I’m sorry I never said anything,” is what Otter hears. “I should have told you instead of always going with her. I guess she doesn’t really love me.”

“It’s not your fault. I should have said something too, but I was just afraid you’d hate me. Forever. And I can’t lose you,” Otter says back.

Boon pulls him in for another kiss and they spend the rest of the night like that.

When they leave their room together and head out, Hoover is at the foot of the stairs waiting for them. They see him kiss a guy goodbye and then lean against the wall. 

“Good morning, lovebirds.”

“Oh, please, Robert,” Boon snarks as he drapes his arm around Otter and plants a kiss on his cheek right in front of Hoover.

“Glad to know you got home safe, Hoover,” Otter says, blushing.

Hoover swoons, “Oh, it was anything but safe…”

He cackles at their reactions, Boon gagging and Otter rubbing the bridge of his nose.

They pass by the kitchen to greet the other guys. The pledges are eating breakfast and Boon pretends to not see them holding hands under the table. D-Day nods to them as he passes by the fridge to pick up a drink. Bluto's eating a little bit of everything.

“Hey guys,” Otter starts. “So Donald and I–”

“We know,” The guys all say in unison.

Guess that saved Otter the pain of explaining something else to the guys.

He feels Boon intertwine their fingers and they leave the house.

“What do we do now?”

“Confirm the rumors about us, Eric.”

"I'd love to, Donald."

They kiss again and Otter feels like he can be Eric again.

And he’d love Boon as much as he loved Donald.

Maybe he’d let himself be a little bit softer now.


End file.
